Black New York mother with 3-year-old tackled to ground and pepper-sprayed by cops suspecting her of shoplifting
ROCHESTER, NEW YORK: Rochester police have come under fire once again after body camera footage showed a Black mother getting pepper-sprayed during an arrest while she was holding a toddler. The footage from February 22 shows officers responding to a shoplifting complaint. According to CNN, the alleged suspect was carrying her 3-year-old child at the time of confrontation.
Reportedly, when approached by the cops, the woman proceeds to show the officers the insides of her purse, and “insisted” that she wasn’t stealing. When the police officer asks her to wait with him, she runs with her child in her arm. “The officer then chases her down the street, tackles her in a parking lot, and restrains her,” the reports say.
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The child reportedly wandered and was seen crying while its mother was being tackled by the cop. Another officer is said to have arrived at the scene later and pulled the child away from the suspect.
The Rochester Police Department said in a statement that they received a report about a “female shoplifter” who was “arguing with store employees and refusing to leave." The Black woman who was pepper-sprayed reportedly matched the description of the suspect in the complaint.
“The child was not pepper-sprayed or injured during the arrest. The female was charged with trespassing and given an appearance ticket,” it read further. The officer in question has reportedly been placed on administrative duty until an internal investigation is completed.
Meanwhile, Rochester Police Chief Cynthia Herriot-Sullivan said during a press conference on Friday, March 5, that it appears as if the officers were “following department policy on pepper spray, which is allowed if the individual is ‘physically resisting’.”
The Police Accountability Board, held a news conference to discuss the incident and said that the department needs to "fundamentally change its organizational culture." They noted there were “troubling parallels” between the latest incident and the one that took place in January, which involved pepper-spraying of a 9-year-old. The camera footage showed Rochester officers handcuffing before using pepper spray in response to what was reported as “family trouble”.
The board’s statements read, “Both incidents involved Black mothers. Both involved Black children. Both involved Black people obviously in crisis. Both involved officers using pepper spray on or around a Black child.”
Rochester Police Executive Deputy Chief Andre Anderson, while addressing the criticism the department has drawn for its actions said that they are working on “policy changes”. He said, “We need to understand how to respond to young people and where they're coming from.”
In another statement, Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren said, "When incidents like this occur, I am relieved that I ensured body-worn cameras are worn by our police, so we can see what occurs on our streets and hold officers accountable. Change will not come until we have the ability to fully hold our officers accountable when they violate the public's trust.”